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Fillings

Teeth Fillings

Are you concerned that you may have holes or cavities in your teeth?

Do you experience pain when brushing certain teeth or sensitivity when consuming hot or cold foods? You may have tooth decay that requires a dental filling. Dental fillings help to restore your teeth and relieve the pain associated with cavities.

Dental fillings help to restore cavities and bring a damaged tooth back to its usual function and shape. These fillings plug the holes in our teeth caused by decay and wear, ensuring teeth are healthy and can continue functioning without further decay or becoming a bigger issue.

Types of dental fillings

There are several different types of dental fillings and we can discuss which is best for you depending on the location of the restoration in your mouth, the extent of the repair, whether you have any allergies, and your budget.

Amalgam Fillings

Amalgam (or silver) fillings combine silver, copper, tin and mercury to create a strong and stable filling material. It is durable, easy to use, highly resistant to wear and relatively inexpensive compared with other materials. Amalgam fillings are recommended for restoring teeth further back in the mouth and out of sight due to their dark colour.

Composite Fillings

Composite fillings are made up of acrylic resin and finely ground, glasslike particles. These coloured fillings produce the most natural appearance for your restoration. Composite fillings provide durability and resistance to fracture in small to mid-sized restorations that withstand moderate chewing pressure.

Gold fillings

Long-lasting and durable alternative but are rarely used these days. The cost of a gold filling is generally higher than a silver amalgam and the colour doesn’t match natural teeth.

Porcelain Fillings

Porcelain is used to make onlays and inlays – restorations that are used when a large amount of tooth structure has been removed. Onlays and inlays retain more natural tooth structure than a crown and will strengthen a weakened tooth.

How long do fillings last?

The position, shape, material, and functioning pressure, all influence how long dental fillings will last. Larger fillings that bear a heavy functional load tend to break down more quickly than smaller fillings that bear little force. This is why it is impossible and meaningless to try to state categorically how long fillings should last.

However, when placing a filling, your dentist may have an idea of the expectation of the life of the filling. For example, a very small filling in the groove of a tooth away from biting pressure could be there for decades whereas a very large one in the mouth of a person who grinds their teeth may be lucky to last a few years and really should have a crown.

During a checkup, we are constantly monitoring the state of your fillings, looking for signs of weakness, cracking, decay or discolouration.

Are you overdue for a checkup?

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